No consensus on state BJP chief, poll deferred
Shimla, November 9
Failing to evolve a consensus despite several talks with the top leadership of the state, the BJP high command has postponed the election of the Himachal BJP chief to November 18.

Pak tourists to be under scanner
Dharamsala, November 9
Tourists coming to Hamirpur district from Pakistan will now be under the scanner of the police.
Alarmed over intelligence reports that certain militant groups are trying to consolidate their base in the district, the police has drawn up a strategy to counter any subversive activity in the area.

Food insecurity looms over 213 villages
Shimla, November 9
As many as 213 of the total 20,118 villages are vulnerable to food insecurity in the hill state. This has been revealed in a study conducted by the Himachal Consultancy
under the food insecurity and vulnerability information mapping system for the Food and Agriculture Organisation. Of these, 58 villages fall in the most-vulnerable category.

14 shops gutted in Mandi fire
Mandi, November 9
As many as 14 shops were gutted and a house and a computer centre damaged in a fire that broke out at Chauhata Bazaar at midnight yesterday. Property worth Rs 2 crore is reported to have been destroyed.

Lucknow medico surrenders for HP-CPMT leak
Shimla, November 9
Dr Govind Sachan, a student of King George Medical College, Lucknow, today surrendered before the police here today as he is alleged to be involved in the HP-CPMT paper leak.

RI for life in murder case
Sundernagar, November 9
The Fast-Track Court Judge, Mandi, Mr S.C. Kainthala, has convicted Jhaptu Ram, a resident of Sangdhar in Padhar tehsil, and sentenced him to rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs 10,000 for murdering Devinder Kumar on June 14, 2004.

Missing doctor’s body found
Shimla, November 9
The police today recovered the body of Dr Vijay Sharma, Head of the Microbiology Department at Indira Gandhi Medical College, from the Sutlej, near Kandraur.

Shimla, November 9
Failing to evolve a consensus despite several talks with the top leadership of the state, the BJP high command has postponed the election of the Himachal BJP chief to November 18.

All top ranking leaders of the state, including former Union minister Shanta Kumar, former Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal, state BJP chief Suresh Bhardwaj and former MP Maheshwar Singh met the all-India organisational secretary, Mr Sanjay Joshi, at Delhi today. After holding consultations with Mr Joshi, a decision on postponement of the poll, which was scheduled to be held tomorrow, was taken.

“The high command has held consultations with all leaders and the election has now been postponed to November 18,” said Mr Suresh Bhardwaj, state BJP president. Mr Dhumal, who was not in Delhi yesterday, held consultations with Mr Bal Apte, National vice-president, and former Delhi Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma, in charge party affairs of Himachal.

It is reliably learnt that the two observers has shortlisted three names, which will be placed before the national president, Mr Rajnath Singh. Party sources said the race had now narrowed down to three persons, Mr Ram Swaroop, state BJP vice-president, Mr Jai Ram Thakur, MLA, and Mr Kripal Parmar, former MP.

Since the high command is no mood that the elections should be held, it is being expected that a final decision will be taken by Mr Rajnath Singh after holding consultations with Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Mr L.K. Advani. Some leaders from the state, who were still camping in Delhi, said the final choice might be between Mr Ram Swaroop and Mr Jai Ram Thakur, who had strong organisational backing. Another factor which was going in favour of Mr Thakur was the fact that he hailed from Mandi, which constituted the mid-belt.

Dharamsala, November 9
Tourists coming to Hamirpur district from Pakistan will now be under the scanner of the police.
Alarmed over intelligence reports that certain militant groups are trying to consolidate their base in the district, the police has drawn up a strategy to counter any subversive activity in the area.

As part of the plan, directions have been issued to all police stations in Hamirpur to keep an eye on the tourists coming to Hamirpur from Pakistan.

Talking to The Tribune, Hamirpur SP Daljeet Thakur said many residents in Nadaun subdivision of the district had relatives in Pakistan, who visited them. "The antecedents of such foreigners will now be checked to make sure that no militant group took roots in the district," he said.

He added that the police was also making sure that migrant labourers staying in the district were not allowed to indulge in any illegal activity and all police stations had been asked to keep a vigil on them.

The matter came up at a high-level meeting attended by DIG (Central Range)
J.R. Thakur.

The DIG said though no intelligence report had come to the police department in black and white, they were not taking any chances.

He, however, said it would be ensured that the tourists coming to Hamirpur were not put to any inconvenience.

Sources said the police had also decided that a constable would accompany the foreigners coming to Hamirpur, whenever they go to visit their relatives. It would also be ensured that no tourist was overstaying his
visa or staying here illegally without proper documents.

Even though there have been reports about militant activities in Chamba, this is for the first time that the Hamirpur police is focusing on the possibility of militant groups trying to base themselves there.

"In Chamba, there were reports of massive militant activities near the Khundimaral area and there was an apprehension that militants sneaking into Himachal Pradesh," said a police official.

Security was beefed up in the border areas of Chamba district as a precautionary measure in view of the recent incidents of violence along the border. The possibility of militants sneaking into Himachal Pradesh due to excessive pressure from the other side cannot be ruled out," said a senior police official.

"A handful of Pakistani tourists visited Hamirpur district this year as well, primarily to meet their relatives and friends," said the police official.

Shimla, November 9
As many as 213 of the total 20,118 villages are vulnerable to food insecurity in the hill state. This has been revealed in a study conducted by the Himachal Consultancy (HIMCON) under the food insecurity and vulnerability information mapping system for the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Of these, 58 villages fall in the most-vulnerable category.

Gujjars are the poorest and most food vulnerable, followed by farm labourers and wage earners. In case of Gujjars, lack of exposure to modern techniques of breeding, harvesting and utilisation of livestock has resulted in low productivity. They have not benefited by artificial insemination and other livestock-improvement programmes. They are poor farmers and also low on hygiene and sanitation.

Farm labourers are food vulnerable because of underemployment as the demand is for less than five months in a year in subsistence agriculture and eight months in commercial agriculture. They also suffer from diseases like asthma and TB.

The migrant labourers are generally illiterate, which affects their ability in pursuing work with higher returns and access to information on health and nutrition. They gave low priority to health and nutrition. Those from outside the state preferred private health facility to that of the government as the latter is time consuming and they have to lose a day’s wages to avail of it.

It was also revealed that 44 per cent of the children were undernourished, of which 5 per cent were severely undernourished and 41 per cent stunted. Interestingly, the Shilai block, which had the highest number of beneficiaries under the Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS), also had the highest number of underweight children.

The survey also revealed a link between poverty and cropped area. Lower the cropped area, higher the number of below poverty line (BPL) families. For instance, districts like Chamba, which had the lowest cropped area, had more than 38 per cent BPL families. This also indicated that the state was predominantly dependent on agriculture.

However, the survey cautions that the present generation could be the last to live off land as farm holdings have fragmented over the years and the average holding was as low as half a hectare.

Mandi, November 9
As many as 14 shops were gutted and a house and a computer centre damaged in a fire that broke out at Chauhata Bazaar at midnight yesterday. Property worth Rs 2 crore is reported to have been destroyed.

The fire, which started in a cloth shop and raged for about five hours, is suspected to have been caused by a short-circuit.

Three concrete buildings behind the gutted shops prevented the fire from spreading. Firefighters battled the flames for more than an hour with little success. More firefighters were rushed from the BBMB, Pandoh, Sundernagar, NTPC Kol Dam and Bilaspur. The fire was extinguished around 5 am.

Mr Naresh Kumar, a schoolteacher who sounded the fire brigade, told The Tribune that he smelt smoke and woke up to
see it billowing from the shop.

Mr Tara Chand, owner of the cloth shop, said there was no heater in the shop. "I got a call around 1 am and rushed to the shop. I saw firefighters breaking the shutter of the shop as smoke was coming out of the shop," he said.

Fire Station Officer Sohan Lal Verma said the shop exploded into huge flames, engulfing adjoining shops due to inflammable materials like paint and thinners.

The DC, Mr Subhashis Panda, SP
M. Chander Sekhar and other officials rushed to the spot to monitor the firefighting operation. "We are calling a meeting of affected shopkeepers to find out ways to restart their business," the DC said.

The MC president, Mr H.R. Vaidya, however, said the fire had destroyed property worth Rs 10 crore and urged the government to compensate.

The IPH Minister, Mr Kaul Singh Thakur, and the Excise and Taxation Minister, Mr Rangila Ram Rao, rushed to Mandi and directed the administration to speed up the
rehabilitation of the fire-hit families.

Shimla, November 9
Dr Govind Sachan, a student of King George Medical College, Lucknow, today surrendered before the police here today as he is alleged to be involved in the HP-CPMT paper leak.

Fed up with raids being conducted by the Himachal Police at the residence of Dr Sachan in Lucknow, he decided to surrender before the police and join investigations. The police suspects his involvement in tutoring the candidates who benefited from the paper leak.

Police sources said Dr Sachan had done his BDS from King George Medical College and was now doing MD. He is being interrogated by the police for his role and links with others involved in the case.

Meanwhile, a police team today took Rafi Ahmad, who had been arrested from Karnataka earlier, to Delhi for further investigation, said Mr A.P. Singh.

Sundernagar, November 9
The Fast-Track Court Judge, Mandi, Mr S.C. Kainthala, has convicted Jhaptu Ram, a resident of Sangdhar in Padhar tehsil, and sentenced him to rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs 10,000 for murdering Devinder Kumar on June 14, 2004.

In case of default of payment of fine, the convict has to further undergo imprisonment for one year.

As per the story of prosecution the convict had committed murder of Devinder Kumar who had gone to the house of the convict as he was called by Ms Shukari Devi, daughter of the convict. The mother of the deceased and another person were witness to the crime. The police had registered a case under Section 302, IPC, and arrested the convict.